How Sam Is Not A Grinch
by Soncnica
Summary: Sam and Dean exchange Christmas presents on the side of the road.


**I LOVE Christmas!!! Love it, love it, love it. And I love giving people presents, I love seeing the look on their faces, just…the smile and the happiness. **

**So…I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Very Happy New Year but if you're not celebrating that, then I just wish you all the best!!!! I truly do!**

**This year has been just awesome and it was partly because of all the people I met here…you made this yeah bearable and special. You know who you are, and I just want to say I love you all and tight hugs to everyone who'll read this!!! You don't have to review, you don't even have to read it…it's just a present. **

**I own nothing…just the mistakes, sorry. **

**Enjoy…**

**---**

The road was pebbly, covered in melted snow mixed with rain and dirt. The sound in the car was a deafening mixture of the roaring engine, dull music and the tires crushing the pebbles and fallen tree branches. Soft bumps of tires hitting big patches of snow, that hasn't melted yet, were like a massage for tired muscles…the last hunt required some R&R, but a ghost case needed to be saved, so…the only R&R anyone was getting was a bumpy massage the road and the car provided.

_What a way to spend Christmas… _

The sight on Sam's side of the window was almost serene. Trees passing by, branches covered in snow, the moon casting light on the snow, making the night almost day with how bright everything was.

Two big splashes of snow dropped on the windshield and Dean opened the windshield wipers to clean them away.

"Bah, I just dirtied up the window…awesome."

Sam smiled and turned his attention back to the scenery, leaving Dean to take care of his baby's windshield. His ears dully picked out _baby_, _son of a bitch_ and _snow_, being mumbled out of Dean's mouth, but his attention was on the scenery…on the forest going by with each heartbeat.

There was not much to see, really, not until the trees dispersed and a dark void almost sucked Sam in. He wasn't prepared to see a clearing and a deep valley beneath him. When Dean turned the car, Sam grabbed the door handle, trying to find purchase…trying not to fall into the vacant space beneath him.

"You shouldn't do that."

_Huh… _

"The door can open and you can fall out."

_Oh…_

"I know, 'm not five." Sam mumbled under his breath.

"Just don't do it again."

Sam wanted to argue that it was a move his brain didn't even register, that it was an involuntary move, to save his life. He really didn't want to fall in the space beneath the road.

Then the lights came to flash before Sam's eyes. A city in the valley, full off flashing lights, red, yellow, orange, blue, you name it...bright and vibrating.

It was something that captured Sam, something he hadn't felt in a very long time. Christmas. Decorating a house, dinner with family, drinks, singing, presents and laughs…fairytales he heard from his friends.

"Stop the car."

"What?"

"Stop the car, Dean."

"Why?"

He looked at his brother, the confusion written clearly on his face.

"Please, Dean."

"Where am I supposed to stop the car?"

"I don't know, just stop it."

After a few seconds Dean spotted a clearing: "There's one of those side road tourist parking zones kind of thingy."

"You see…wasn't that hard."

Dean huffed and guided the car there and stopped.

"Now what?"

Sam's lips tugged up into a smile: "Get out."

The cold hit hard, the wind harder and the moonlight reflecting off the snow burned a path to their eyes.

Dean followed Sam to the front of the car, settling himself on Sam's left side…

"The lights…"

"Yeah, the lights and some ghost action."

The lights were flickering in a city that their next hunt's gonna be. A simple salt and burn if everything'll go their way. Which it won't so…no need to even hope it would.

"So…"

"So…"

"'s Christmas today."

"Again?"

"Yeah it usually comes every year, I mean go figure, ha." Dean smiled.

"Yeah."

After a beat of silence, Dean sighed: "You gonna be a Grinch this year again, Sammy?"

Sam smirked and pulled something from his pocket.

A small package was barely standing its ground on Sam's big palm.

"The funnies, Sammy?"

"I knew you'd like them."

Dean smiled…a smile that reached his eyes and ears.

"Open it."

The package wrapped in last week's funnies was practically shoved under Dean's nose.

Dean grabbed it, placed it in his grip, and stared at it with his 'will something eat me if I open this' look.

"Open it. Come on."

"Okay, okay, hold your horses."

The paper was carefully pulled apart, earning a scowl from Sam.

"What? I really liked these funnies."

"Okay, Granny…speed up, will ya…'m freezing my ass here." he rubbed his hands together, hoping that some friction would heat them up.

"Hey, it was you who demanded we stop."

"Alright, okay, just…open it."

The paper was once again being pulled apart carefully, smoothed at the edges…Dean was being extra careful not to tear anything apart. Part of the slowness was because he just wanted to annoy Sam and the other part was because he really liked the comics. But the biggest part, the part where math was stupid, because he already had two parts and two parts make a whole, but who cares about math on Christmas…was because he wanted the moment to linger, to stay…to not flee away.

On the side of the road, looking at the flickering lights down below in the valley, looking at how people live, how they decorate their homes…all those lights, all those stars, all that snow…

On the side of the road, with his baby brother standing right next to him, shoulders touching, sharing heat…this was Christmas…family, together…no matter what.

"Christmas'll be over before you'll open that!"

"Ah, Sammy…enjoy a little, live a little."

"'m cold."

"_You_ wanted _me_ to _stop_, Sam."

Sam looked at the road, not wanting for this conversation to continue. He just got Dean back, he ain't gonna ruin their first Christmas arguing. No way in Hell.

A gasp from his left notified him that Dean had finally opened the gift.

"Sam, I…ah…"

"Yeah."

"You…thanks."

Dean slapped him on his back, a love you in a touch.

"You like it?"

"No, I hate it…Jeez of course I like it. My baby and I thank you from the bottom of our hearts."

"See I'm not a Grinch."

"Where did you get it?"

"Bobby."

Dean smiled: "Awesome."

"Yeah." Sam looked at his sneakers, and how the wet snow was drenching them in water. His socks were wet already, and the cold was spreading up his body to his hands that were starting to turn red and icy.

"Can we go now?"

"No…I haven't given you your present yet."

"You don't have to. I have enough Barbie's and Pony's already."

"Yeah, well…that hair Sammy…you know…we always thought you were a girl."

"Shut up." He slapped Dean's shoulder, not hard to make Dean wince, but he did.

"Sorry."

"Nah, it's fine. It'll heal."

"So my present?"

Dean looked at Sam…his baby brother, standing on the side of the road, with those kiddy eyes, shiny and big, trust and anticipation written all over his irises.

"Wait here."

And Dean was gone…only his back visible as he rounded the car. Sam got this painful feeling of Dean being _gone_, splashing into his mind and when he heard the Impala's door creaking close, the feeling drowned in something…and it never resurfaced again. Not that evening at least.

"Hold out your hand."

Sam was startled, when Dean returned and spoke. The voice was a deep rumble that Sam's mind stumbled upon and he needed a second to comprehend that Dean had returned, that he was here, that he _came back_.

"What?"

"Hold out your hand, palm up."

"Ah…"

Sam pulled his hand out of his hoodie pocket, and stretched it before him, keeping his palm in a fist.

"Nothin' 's gonna bite me, right?"

"I swear. Trust me."

He slowly unclenched his fist and saw Dean moving his hand towards his. A brush of fingers and something cold and small found its home in his palm.

When Dean removed his hand, Sam looked down. What he saw took his breath away, and his eyes watered. It was subconsciously, he didn't mean to stop breathing.

"Sam?"

Sam was lost, his eyes fixed on the item in his hand.

"Sam? You 'kay?"

Everything hit him…Dean in Hell, Dean leaving him, Dean not being here, Dean lost and tortured, Dean gone, him alone, no more Christmases, no more birthday's, no more…nothing. Just him and the Impala.

"Sammy? They're just keys. Sam?"

"You were gone, and…"

"Sammy?"

"me and the car…"

"You bonded?" Dean shrugged.

"She was the only thing left…her and the amulet."

"Sam…"

"'m fine."

"Sure. Sam…'m here now, okay? 'm back and I'm here."

"I know…'m fine."

"Okay, bitch…"

Sam laughed: "Okay, come on…I guess I'm driving today."

"Yeah you are. But just for tonight…the keys don't mean you can have her."

"So…for Christmas you gave me…ah…the Impala to drive you around?"

"Well, yeah."

"Jerk."

"Yeah, well, come on…start her up…my ass is freezing."

The road slowly descended down the hill, slowly making its way down to the city, where the next case was lying. It was nice…sitting behind the wheel, with his brother riding shotgun, with his _alive_ brother lightly snoring in the passenger seat. Sam thought he would never see that happen, but it did. It was happening right now…and it was the best present he could ever get. EVER!

"You called the Impala 'her'…awww Sammy you bonded."

"Shut up."

**---**

**The End**


End file.
